Also looking for everyone to pick a number 1-100, who ever is closest will be granted a gift from Kruger. IF no one is within 10 then I shall grant it to my troops

T -1 hour

Lord Marshall Karak walked past the cells filled with pitiful humans, criminals and traitors they had captured, all locked up, none spoke and all curled into corners or averted there eyes as he passed, so it should be. Those who looked would suffer, any who spoke would soon learn to hold there tongues.

In a Dark chapel, simple metal grates on the floor and bare stone and metal walls knelt a prisoner at the rooms end, broken, the thief, traitor and now stripped of all rank and power, just another wretched human, one of trillions.
To the sides stood 4 skull helmed chaplains, motionless, calm, waiting as the Marshall entered followed by the Emperors Champion clad in the Armour of Faith and the two handed greatsword of office, saluting the Chaplains present he took his place for the ritual.

A Minute passed, quiet bar the sobs of the prisoner, finaly Chaplain Saladin, Highest Chaplain of the chapter and oldest of them all spoke quietly but with great force.
“you have been condemned a traitor, a heretic and thief, you betrayed your office and your honour. I submit you to face the God Emperors final and highest judgement, may he decide your fate.

Champion, do your duty”
The champion stepped forward, crossing the room in 5 steps he raised the ancient blade silently taking his head and sending red blood pouring down the gutters. All bowed their heads until finally Karak spoke.

“your duty is done, now go to your commands and prepare for battle. May the Emperor bless this campaign and grant us Victory”

T -45 minutes

On the Battle Bridge crew busied themselves and brought all systems online, tracks plotted and targets where being assigned. Karak felt proud, his Brothers where performing their duties perfectly, everything was on time and down below on the torpedo decks and hangers the assault boats and boarding torpedo’s where ready, Marines stood by there stations, Chaplains issuing the blessings and Honours, Sgts gave their orders and the Lord Marshalls Honour guard gathered for war alongside the terminators he would lead personally in battle.

The Sentinal stood still as stone as always, his Power halberd and shield gleaming and blessed.

Another had his great sword ready, a relic and potent weapon indeed.
Next to him the most dangerous of them all, poised like a stalking predator he paced, a great war axe in one hand and sabre strapped to his leg, finally the last one arrived with a shield and great thunder hammer clad in terminator plate, joining the Marshall in his ornate and Ancient Terminator armour, his sword in one hand and great tower shield locked to the other.

“Lord Marhsall i request to join your guard”
Stepping in Chaplain vargos arrived, clad in his armour and menacing skull helm he carried a two handed great sword and jump pack, one of the finest swordsmen, winner of the feast of blades.

“your skill is legendary, i welcome you to my guard, The sentinel will fill you in on our plans and tactics”

**********

On the Ork bridge the enormous kaptain sat on a throne carved from a wrecked leman russ tank, his huge kombi shooter in one hand and power claw slowly twitching as he waited for the fight to begin.
“oi you, ya know ya cowardly mek, if ya want some beaky armour this time ya better earn it, this lot are black beakies, not dem cowardly blue one this lot know how to fight proppa, choppa to choppa, none of that shooter malarkey, your going first ya here”

surrounded by his 9 foot tall nobz, he stepped down, huge metal boots sounding like thunder, come on ladz, yua know me, i always get us a good fight, follow me and we show them what a real ork looks nice n close up.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

*************
The two fleets closed quicky, the fastest ork ships where soon turned to hulks by the Emperors Vengeance and its strike cruisers, bombardment cannons sending vast shells that caused the crude ork ships to glow long after there crews were dead. Burning wrecks, scrap metal.

The real fight would begin soon when they duelled the cruisers that followed, vast mass’s of crude armour and guns. A fleet of steel mazes, filled with orks, gretchin and all manner of beasts and savage creatures. A real challenge to even most skilled boarding force.

Big guns duelled as shells the size of buildings slammed home on both sides, shields battered, metal tore and the ships blasted hell out of each other closing to boarding range, BlackSword taking dozens of hits, shields gone its armour was wrent in several places and great tears torn deep into its hull but its cannons fury turned the attacker into a flaming hulk, explosions tearing from stren to aft as magazines detonated.

Emperors Vengeance duelled 4, its shields still holding and cannons reaping a heavy toll but ork torpedo’s hit home sending thousands of greenskins pouring aboard the starboard hangers, Deathkorps surged forward flamers burning both Kreig and greenskin in a savage pyre as several squads of marines joined the fight bolters roaring, swords clashing and driving them back lead by a chaplain shouting curses and reinforcing the Brothers morale as they drove the boarders back.

Ork ships burned savagely, the Black Sword was repelling boarders and Devine light took postion to Emperors Vengeance starboard protecting its weaker flank as they charged to board the great flagship and take its captains head.

Boarding torpedo’s and assault boats slammed home, first the auto guns shreaded anything that moved before the Marshall and his boarding party charged into the hanger, slaughtering the orks busying around crude planes and goliath battles as Marine ceramite met ork muscle in brutal hand to hand combat. Deeper in its maze like hull the Terminaitors headed to the engines and magazines to rig melta charges, as the Marshall and Honour guard battled down the ramshackle corridors to the bridge, finaly meeting the warboss in combat.

The bridge was a mass of random junk, ammunition, tropheys, guns and crude controls, as the two titanic forces met, shields slammed, limbs flew and finaly it came down to one on one, the Honour guard stepped back, one of there number slain, taking a blow aimed at his lord, duty done.

the two circled, “OI, come on and fight beakie, i want a new shiny helmet to put on me rack, unless ya a coward”

Silently the Marshall replied as sword met claw, shield slammed into its chest knocking it backwards and deflecting a storm of massive rounds from the crude firearm, seeing the threat Karak sliced the magazine in two, crude ammunition exploding blasting half the Orks arm away in the process.

Enraged again the beast charged, this time he had his opening, taking the beasts hit and reeling he caught its weakness, a gap in the crude armour, where the plate was damaged slicing its head clean off and causing the xeno corpse to the floor with a crash like a tank exploded.

“Bring back Brother Santord home, do not let his corpse be defiled by the savages, we retreat and blow the charges, gather any information you see and fall back”

from the Assult boat they watched as explosions tore the huge cruiser apart, separating into 3 parts and drifiting in space afalame, glowing in the darkness of the void.

Victory was not cheap, 21 Brothers dead, 54 wounded and Black Sword was damaged, Emperors Vengeance required its hangers purging of spores and corpse. Though 23 greenskin ships destroyed, warboss slain and one less enemy fleet to worry about.

Marshall Karak got on the Vox, “Brother SGT Tangir, pass on our success to HQ, get repair crews on the double and find out who we lost. Have them Honoured and placed among the great vaults until we can place them the Eternal Crusaders sacred halls of Honour. “

The number was 71, i figured smudge would be the closest.

--T-Minus 1 hour before Mogrok's Exterminatus--

"Captain Aurelius, Command has sent you a package." Legate Hyperion announced as he entered Aurelius' personal chamber. "It'll arrive in about 4 hours. Do you wish to postpone the boarding action?"

Aurelius glanced up from his sector map. His skin seemed drawn, paler than since Hyperion had last seen it. He suspected it wasn't from the reconstructive surgery the Acting-Captain had endured after the Sack of Chormi. The skin graft had bonded well, leaving only a slight lump where the flesh and muscle had been burned away. No, Hyperion realised, it was the deaths of the four Ultramarines of Strikeforce Praetoria. Their unavoidable deaths had weighed down heavily on the fresh commander, despite Lord Calgar's insistence otherwise.

"No, Legate. We must strike now, whilst we have the advantage. We can't let them get down to Mogrok. Ready the fleet and strikeforce now, if you please."
"Of course, Captain, Cou-"
"Acting-Captain." The emphasis on the first word was unmistakable.
"Indeed. My apologies. Courage and Honour."
"Courage and Honour."

--T-Minus 3 minutes before Mogrok's Exterminatus--
Aurelius looked over his honour guard again, this time unhooded by his now-ruined battle helm. Their heads were bowed, but their iron grips on their weapons betrayed their readiness. The last time Aurelius led an assault via drop pod, it had resulted in victory at high cost.The Acting-Captain only hoped this time would be different. His grip tightened on his sword and shield, making one last prayer to Guilliman and the Emperor.
"++Captain, we're in range. Permission to begin bombardment?++" Commander Vandis relayed over the vox. The Valin's Revenge was accompanied by a small squadron of cruisers from the local battlefleet, prepared to rain fiery death on the ork ships. Meanwhile, Strikeforce Praetoria would board the commanding vessel, identified as "Da Thundablitza". At least, that was the plan. All it took was one word.
"Begin, brother."

--T-Plus 10 minutes after Mogrok's Exterminatus--
Blood dripped off of Aurelius' relic blade. He breathed hard, feeling his open wounds rapidly clotting. Grunting, he pushed the decapitated Nob Boss' kneeling corpse down with a ceramite boot. It's thick, bestial blood seeped through the decking. The assault had been a disaster.

Emperor knew how, but according to fleet reports, someone had performed Exterminatus against Mogrok. The rocky planet had ripped into the greenskin fleet and disrupted his boarding party, the drop pods flung through the oncoming debris. The drop pods had slammed into different parts of the battleship, and were now fighting individual battles through the ork infested hull of "Da Thundablitza". None of his men from the Second Company had lost men, although Tactical Squad Vorolanus was dangerously low on ammunition and Assault Squad Ixion and Tactical Squads Solinus and Vorolanus had sustained many serious injuries amongst their men. No, it wasn't their problems that weighed so heavily on him.
It was far worse.
Somehow, Vanguard Veteran Squad Thracian had found itself in the ork commander's bridge. Aurelius had no doubt that the elite squad of veteran Astartes had taken their toll on the warboss's command cadre, possibly the brute itself, but there was no hiding from the fact. The squad were dead. Aurelius' other two veteran squads, Terminator Squad Vitruvilus and Sternguard Squad Demetrius, were fighting through the bowels of the ship alongside Aurelius and his retinue. Their demise hurt Aurelius more than any ork blade ever could. Those were his brothers - Thracian and Aurelius had served together in the same taskforce that cleansed Thrax of it's daemonic denizens. Even now, he saw his grinning face, his slicked blonde hair. Gone. Defiled.

The bombardments still rattled through the hull. Reports from the fleet were dire. The ork armada had somehow weathered the rippling first volleys of the Imperial warships, only losing a few small frigates. Not for the first, and certainly not the last time, Aurelius cursed the manic ingenuity and resilience of the greenskins. In fact, so much damage had been taken that aid had to be called in, originating from Strike Force Hammer. They were meant to have arrived several minutes ago. No sign. No vox. Nothing at all.

Gunfire echoed down from the corridor, flashing brightly past a corner.
"Sons of Ultramar, with me!" Aurelius yelled, charging ahead, rounding the corner. He couldn't see the orks' attackers through the swathe of greenskins between them, but that didn't stop the captain. His men descended on the distracted horde, rending and tearing through flesh with every shot and swing. The engagement was over in seconds. Along the corridor stood proud warriors clad in black power armour. Their white shoulder pads bore a resplendent cross, now anointed liberally in vermillion blood.

"Black Templars. We did not seek to find you here." Aurelius called out.
"Nor we you, Acting-Captain. We feared you dead."

Aurelius sheathed his blade sharply, indignantly.
"Well, I am sorry to disappoint you. Come, let us avenge my dead and slay this Warboss whilst we still can!"
"Unnecessary, Acting-Captain. Our host has seen to that. Don't worry, your dead have been evacuated and taken to the "Devine Light" to await your return. The Warboss lies dead, and his ship is mined, ready to explode. We're here to extract you and your men."

Hadris Aurelius stood speechless. He had no words left to express his shock, his relief, his... anger. Anger that his men had bled and died, all for nothing, and for the fething Templars to come and take the credit. Instantly, the heretical thoughts were banished, crushed away. It served no place here. Another time, perhaps, Aurelius thought.

"Very well, Templar." the Acting-Captain spat. "Do as you must."

Sorry for the delay guys, I was in Spain for a week so I couldn't really follow with the rest of the storyline. Hope you don't mind me putting in a little bit of intrigue with fake artifacts and Necron oddities

Also, I'll pick number 21; let's hope the Death Ravens don't run into unexpected troubles on Volentis and Grimdi....

Ooh, a plot twist! Me like plot twists!
More Deathwatch have arrived in system to boost the strength of the crusade, and the seven worlds making up the Chaos star have had the relics on them recovered and Exterminatus'ed. Ave Imperator indeed.
For the sake of the next numbers choice thing, I'll throw the number 39 in.

Mystery! Mystery aplenty!